


'Til Morning Comes

by PatchworkSam



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I kind of headcanoned here about how angels' grace works, I'll leave that up to you, M/M, Nightmares, Sam vs. sleep, Sastiel - Freeform, could be read as platonic or romantic, sort of sastiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 02:50:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4042939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatchworkSam/pseuds/PatchworkSam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas knows Sam doesn’t sleep well. He hasn’t ever, really. But it seems to have gotten worse since he’d been possessed by Gadreel and Dean took on the Mark. Cas thinks there may be some way he can help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Til Morning Comes

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little fic I wrote up a few days ago. The idea came to me completely out of the blue while I was rambling in the tags on a tumblr gif set of Sam sleeping. Thanks to heavenlysams and slyytherinsam on tumblr for beta-ing this for me!

Cas knows Sam doesn’t sleep well. He hasn’t ever, really. But it seems to have gotten worse since he’d been possessed by Gadreel and Dean took on the Mark. Sam doesn’t know Cas knows about the nightmares, and Cas doesn’t tell him. He knows Sam wouldn’t want to feel like a burden, wouldn’t want anyone to be concerned about him. But since getting his grace back, every night Cas spends awake in the bunker, he can’t help but detect the silent psychic screams and shreds of distressed thought emanating from Sam’s room.

Human souls emit psychic wavelengths just as angels do, but normally Cas can ignore them easily. Most angels’ grace tends to be more attuned to the voices of their brethren than to humans. But there is something about Sam’s soul that calls out to Cas too loudly, too clearly to be ignored, and Cas doesn’t resist it.

Perhaps it started when he took on Sam’s hallucinations. Perhaps even before that; Cas isn’t sure when he first noticed it. Either way, it doesn’t change the fact that now, as Cas wanders through the stacks in the library alone, his grace resonates with a rising pitch, a cry of fear and pain. He feels it more strongly now, having once been human, but no one knows fear and pain like Sam Winchester.

A tremor runs through him as the sensation rises to a keening wail in his mind. He feels an overwhelming sense of sadness—for even angels are not immune to that. He is not sure it would help Sam to know how much of his nightmares Cas can feel, but Cas thinks there may still be some way he can ease his friend’s suffering.

He finds himself padding down the halls of the bunker, toward the source of the agonized cries ringing in his consciousness. He decides against entering Sam’s room and instead settles himself just outside the door. He reaches out with his grace and finds Sam’s soul close by. Again, he avoids intruding, doesn’t attempt to reach inside, but merely extends his grace in tendrils of peace, gently wrapping around Sam’s troubled soul. Soon, he feels it calm, the waves of pain settle, and Sam sleeps deeply through the night.

When morning comes, Sam stumbles out of his room, hair rumpled and eyes squinting at the light. He nearly trips over Cas and looks down, blinking harder in surprise.

“…Cas?” he mumbles, voice gruff with sleep.

“Hello, Sam. Did you sleep well?”

“Uh,” Sam stops and thinks. There are vague memories of a nightmare, but it seems far away, and he feels more rested than he has in a long while. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”

Cas nods, appearing satisfied. “Good. That is good,” he murmurs. A small smile brightens his face.

Sam isn’t sure why, but thereafter Cas takes to spending the night outside his room. But Sam is sure of one thing—the nightmares do not return, so long as Cas is there.


End file.
